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John Cena shocked the wrestling world by recreating CM Punk's iconic pipebomb promo from 2011. He put Punk through a table and then sat on the top rope to get a lot of things off his chest. He also name-dropped several ex-WWE wrestlers who have now taken up different ring names and are in different promotions right now.
John Cena might have intended to do more than just take the names of these non-WWE stars on WWE programming. There is a chance that the Last Real Champion was actually trying to reference CM Punk's past issues in AEW with the Young Bucks and Colt Cabana through his promo.
Matt Jackson was referenced as Matt Cardona
John Cena said hello to the Indy God Matt Cardona during his promo on SmackDown. While most fans believe that Cena gave a shoutout to Cardona because of their history when Cardona used to go by Zack Ryder, Cena might have been referring to AEW star Matt Jackson while namedropping Matt Cardona in his promo.
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The two wrestlers share their first name, and the Young Bucks have a history with CM Punk back when he was in AEW. Punk took a shot at the EVPs of All Elite Wrestling during the infamous All Out 2022 Media Scrum.
Colt Cabana was referenced as Claudio Castagnoli
CM Punk shared a bond of friendship with Colt Cabana for a long time before things started going south between them after Punk's WWE departure and lawsuit. Even in 2022, Hangman Adam Page cut a promo on Punk, blaming him for having Cabana being shifted to ROH due to his personal issues with him.
There is a chance that when John Cena mentioned Claudio Castagnoli on SmackDown, he was trying to refer to Colt Cabana. The abbreviation of the names of both stars is C.C., and this might've been a subtle dig at Punk from Cena.
Nick Jackson was referenced as Nic Nemeth
John Cena also namedropped former TNA World Champion Nic Nemeth in his promo on SmackDown. Nemeth used to be called Dolph Ziggler during his time in WWE and was a former World Heavyweight Champion.
There is a chance that Cena was referring to AEW star Nick Jackson here while mentioning Nic Nemeth. Punk had a major fallout with the Young Bucks during his AEW tenure, and while he referred to Matt Jackson as Matt Cardona, this might've been Cena's way of referencing Nick Jackson.
